getting 2 ferrets!!!Need major help and advice!!!!?

Question

ok i'm going to get two ferrets. Both are going to be like 8 weeks old. One thing i wanted to know is i'm going to let them run around the house. I'm aware they can get into really small and narrow places and alot of my friends have them running around the house. Can ferrets be trained to use the bathroom in their cage or a litter box so they don't poop around the house, if so how can i train them??? And someone told me that they're related to the skunk and they kind of smell but is the smell really that bad?? Will it stink up the house? one last thing what are some good things to buy for the ferrets. Oh and how much should i feed them?Please anwser!!!!

oh and what are good names for the ferrets? I don't want any ordinary names please.

Answer 1

to potty train ur ferret u should put corner litter boxes in rooms that the ferret will be able to access.they dont really smell that bad but u can buy ferret deoderizers* to make them smell good. My ferrets name is Sketch. here is a sight 4 ferret names: http://exoticpets.about.com/cs/namelists/a/namesferr.htm

Answer 2

Ferrets are AWESOME pets, neutered and de scented ferrets dont smell any more than a musky dog, but you definately do need to clean the cage on a constant basis or the smell can get overwhelming.( un neutered ferret with their scent glands in tact will turn your stomach) but they Also do make things to put in the water to keep their poo from smelling as bad. if your worried about them pooping arround the house just make sure that you have enough litter boxes arround the house and if they have an accident pick it up and put it in the litter box. Dont rub their nose in it, it does NO good and only risks the fuzzies health.They usually like to "go" in the same spots over and over. Ferret proofing your house is a must, if theres any possible way for them to get into someting they will. Be prepared to spend quite a chunk of money on these little guys, but you really do get alot in return. I wouldnt give mine up for anything, and i dont plan on buying any other kind of pet again. Keep in mind when they're young they are a little more work but as they mature they calm down...a little. I hope this helps you.

Answer 3

i have grown up with ferrets my whole life and actually just got 8 week old babies a couple months ago... I do let my little guys run around my house, the only time i put them in the cage is at night while i'm sleeping. Thry can fit into a lot of awkward places ex: behind the fridge, under the cabinets... they can be trained to use the litter box. mine are really good about it, just make sure you clean it out every couple of days or they wont use it if it is dirty... They do kinda stink, but you can get them de-sented by your vet. there is also spary to neutralize the smell. i give mine a bath once a week and that seems to tame the stink... it doesn't stink up the house as long as you do both of those.... buy them a cage that has several teirs they love that. they love tubes to crawl in and mine have a hammock that hangs form the top of the cage that they love to sleep in. they like to burrow in blankets as well. I feed my ferrets once a day. i dont really measure it. they are small so obviously they don't eat a lot. mine drink a lot though... just make sure they have plenty of water... good luck with your furry friends :)

Answer 4

They are great animals, very nosey tho. They can be litter trained but I wouldn’t trust them to run the house and come back to their cage all the time to poo and pee. You will find lots of poo in the corners of your house if you keep them out all day and night. I would defiantly let them play and roan outside of the cage but not at all times. Take them out to socialize and play when you are home and in the room with them but try to stay around them, especially since they are only little babies. They are just like puppies that way, they will have accidents.
I had a ferret that was about 4 years old when I got it and usually it was litter trained but i would find poo in the corners of the house.
Keep them close to you and when they go to the corner of the house to poop then take them to the littler box each time til they learn. Never hit or yell at them, it wont help at all.
Ferrets are a blast - they get into everything - and I mean everything. Around Easter one year I came home and the cat had thrown all the jelly beans out of the bowl on the table and the ferret took a nibble out of all of them and left them stuck to the carpet. I miss the ferret, he was a riot!
Mine had a little harness so we could go for walks and a cool hamock for his cage that he just LOVED to hang out in.

Answer 5

they are great and you can feed them a but 1/4 cup of food a day until they are about 1 1/2 years old then give them a 1/2 cup a day and that is for both not 1 give to much and they will dump it all over there cage and make sure the bowl is fasten down good

Answer 6

my husband and i have a ferret named josh, who has the run of the house. we have placed little boxes strategically around the house and usually we wake him up and let him make in his cage before we let him run around. buy them a cage, some warm bedding, litter, scooper, and a hammock. also, you might want to place a clock in the cage for company, since they are so young. they are of the mustilidae family, but most in the US have been descented. always have fresh water and food for them, they will eat only as much as they want. good luck, enjoy them! they are lovely

Answer 7

You will find that it is a BIG mistake to let your ferrets have full run of your home. You can certainly try it...but typically people fail miserably at this. Unfortunately it has nothing to do with training. You can train a ferret all you want BUT they have natural instincts that most people confuse with being bad behavior. For instance...

...deficating in more then one spot, scratching up carpet, and even buroughing in your couch or matress. This is their instincts and you must work around things. For example...you will have to have many, many, litter pans around your home to accomodate their potty habbits. A ferret WILL NOT go all the way to its cage to do its business. You will find that ferrets will go under your refrigerator, stove, and even dishwasher (if there is access). All very bad news for ferrets. Ferrets can get into cabnets, even ones that are up high. If they want to get somewhere they find a way. I have a ferret who goes behind my refrigerator and scales the power cord all the way up to the kitchen counter. Can you imagine the tragidy here if I weren't around to watch their every move? What if something is hot on the stove? What if he gets into cleaners or dish liquid? What if he gets into human food not suitable for him to eat? My sister has a ferret who can get to the top ledge of one of her coat closets just by climbing up a stack of boxes about 3 feet high AND THEN climbing up the coats all the way to the top! So just when you think you have something dangerous out of their reach...you are proved wrong!

Back to the furniture...short of nailing wood planks to the underside of your couches, your ferrets WILL get into your furniture. They will destroy the insides and can possibly even hurt themselves by getting cought up in springs or accidently being sat on by an owner who doesn't know they are there.

Because of all this boloney listed above, my ferrets 'live' in my VERY ferret proofed bedroom. Even still I have problems!! I have four litter pans in my room to accomodate their habbits. hehe I had to buy 4 matress covers. I had to put one matress cover on each side (top and bottom) of my matress and box spring just to keep the little buggers out of it! I also have to keep my matress on the floor...no bed frame...to keep them from dragging various objects and food under my bed. They also found out they could use the bathroom under there which was even worse! They also had access to the thin covering under the box spring. Thats how they got in to begin with. My back was just getting to sore moving my bed every single day to clean up under there.

Am I scarring you yet? hehe Fact of the matter is ferrets are A LOT of work and just when you think you know everything about them or how much work they can be they prove you wrong! Please think long and hard about ferret ownership.

Ferrets do have a distinct odor that can make the area in which they live be a bit oderous. If you keep things adequetly clean you shouldn't have too big of a problem.

Ferrets should have fresh food and water available to them all day long. In other words you 'free feed' them. They do not have meal times.

Answer 8

Go out and spend $14 to get the book Ferrets for Dummies, it's the best guide you can have.

Also check BEFOREHAND to find a vet who works with ferrets, they're sometimes considered exotics and a lot of vets don't keep up with the training on them.

Make sure your state isn't one that considers ferrets illegal, like California.

They need ferret food, high protein (33-50% protein) dry food. Kitten chow sometimes is ok but for full nutrition you'll need a ferret food or Evo. It's not cheap.

Even housetrained ferrets will poop about 20% of the time outside the box they're supposed to do it. They need to be confined to a certain room so fixing up a plexiglass slide in barrier in the doorway is best, provided they can't jump high enough to get over it. They'll scratch up the carpet trying to dig into it, best to have hard wood floors or linoleum ones.

They WILL get inside the couch and stuffed chairs, you need to know where they are before you sit down. AND before you move your feet. Block all access to the underside and back of the refrigerator and stove, dishwasher, all air returns at the floor level (they can lift some out), all holes under cabinets, ANY hole. If they can get their head in it, they can get their body in. Last thing you need is one trapped in the wall or falling down the pipes into the furnace. Dishwashers, washers and dryers need special attention to ferret proof them.

ALL garbage bins need to be tip proof, all wastebaskets too or you'll have it all over the place. ALL potted plants need to be hung from the ceiling (I'm not kidding). No gerbils, mice, pet rats, small birds or any aquarium creatures--the ferrets will get in and eat them.

NO rubber in their reach. That means boots, rubber bands, balloons, dog toys, etc. They chew and eat them, and get blockages that a vet needs to operate on.

Put aside $1,000 per ferret for emergency surgery, they are prone to Aleutians disease and Adrenal disease, plus two or three other things, and the first two will run you about $1,200 to fix.

Join up with at least two ferret boards, but don't stay with the ones that do flame wars. Pooflingers.com is a good one.

Lifespan will be about 6-8 years. 90% of ferrets die from cancer of some sort--unavoidable because our pet ferrets all came from the fur trade and the fur trade only bred for a good coat within 1-3 years, they didn't care about any other genetics so the animals that started out with great health and a 15-17 year lifespan was bred down to short term lives. If you can get Australian or European stock (almost impossible) they do live full ferret lives, but even they are not immune to the two major ferret diseases.

Read up on ferrets online, especially health issues.

Yes, they do smell. It's musky. The ferrets NEED to be neutered if male (or they'll reek) or spayed if female (an unbred female will die within the second heat period, their systems burn out if they're not bred, ending up with the ferret dying from cancer before they're even 2 years old). Giving a bath is ok, but use very hot water. What we'd consider warm is freezing cold to them and they'll fight you on it. They need very hot water to feel comfortable with a bath. Their poop will smell, you need to clean that daily. And you need to work with them if they nip, they don't know that biting hurts.